Riding/Living with permanent back pain

drewfromrisca

Hi after a trip to an osteopath surgeon/specialist today, I'm being sent for an MRI scan and have been told that if it shows nothing surgical then there will be nothing they can do for my pain. I do have wear on my L4/L5 disc which they believe is part of the problem, does anybody else suffer from any sort of back or hip pain and how do they deal with it? I'm also worried about my career as I'm a Police Officer, although I don't enjoy it I'm worried that due to my injury I won't be able to carry out full duties and stuck on a desk job for the rest of my life!

andy_wrx

See this recent thread
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/vi ... t=12562110

Some decent suggestions in there.
It probably doesn't help much, but you're not alone, there are plenty others of us coping with back issues in different ways.
I do know what it's like, what effect the pain and worry have on your mind as well as your body. This isn't as obvious as the physical damage, but can be just as bad.

My major advice is to give it all time - if you're fit and active you'll be very impatient to be 'made right' again, but it really might take quite some time and rushing things will just keep making it acute again.
Try various treatments as in the other thread, some may work for you, others won't.

woody-som

wear is usually down to poor/weak supporting muscles and.or poor posture, so if nothing is showing that can surgically be fixed, ask the doctors what they think about pilates. The idea is to strengthen the muscles around the core, then they help support the upper body and not the actual spinal column, and promote correct posture. Obviously the damage can't be undone, but the symptoms can be lessened.

drewfromrisca

Thanks. I'm doing a lower limb and lower back rehab class every week with work and I do it in the house too. andy_wrx your right about it affecting the mind. It's put me in a total bad funk for a long time, almost as if I'm depressed! I've gone from being a pretty decent athlete (1hr 21 P.B. 1/2 marathon, quality league level footballer) to a total sofa hog! I think I'll just have to keep up the stretches, ab exercises. Does anyone know if yoga is any good?

andy_wrx

Which 'yoga' ?
There are a number of forms, ranging from religious-mystical to agressive-physical to gentle-social.

Pilates is regularly cited for back problems, I've done it myself although have now dropped-out of a formal class and do stretching and core strengthening exercises myself at home.

I guess they're all really variants of the same thing, anything which increases flexibility and strengthen core muscles is going to be good for the back.

Hugh A

I've had a lot of problems with back pain and sciatica giving rise to numbness in the legs.

After an MRI scan I have been told that an operation to fuse two vertebrae is the best bet, but have put off doing that in favour of physio and core strengthening exercises. So far there hasn't been a cure but it really has helped - at least to the point where the pain is mostly variable. I haven't tried pilates but I gather that it deals with the same issue that the physio addresses.

So I would stay with the core development (not necessarily back muscles). See a decent physio if you haven't - they have been much more use to me than any of the 'alternative' treatments.

Oh and check out the C+ work-out this month for back problems - just the job!